Surya Bahadur Thapa, Former Nepal PM, Dies At 87

IANS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nepal's newly appointed Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa comes out of the Parliament building after he won a vote of confidence Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997. Thapa got a majority of 109 votes in the 205-member lower house to become the country's fourth prime minister in three years. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi)

GURGAON — Former Nepalese prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa died at Medanta - The Medicity hospital here late Wednesday night, a doctor said on Thursday. He was 87.

The five-time prime minister was suffering from cancer and was admitted to Medanta hospital on March 29.

"Thapa was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. He breathed his last around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. We handed over Thapa's body to his brother-in-law Sanjay Bahadur Thapa at 11.20 a.m. on Thursday," the doctor said.

Family sources here said the body of Thapa was being taken to Kathmandu where it will be kept at his Maligaon residence prior to the last rites scheduled for Friday.

On Friday morning, the body will be kept at the party office of Thapa's Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) for paying of last tributes to the departed leader. The body will then be taken to Dasharath Stadium for the public to pay their final tributes.

The body of the late RPP leader will be taken to Pashupati Aryaghat for the final rites, RPP general secretary Deepak Bohara told media persons in Kathmandu.

Thapa had served as Nepal prime minister five times (1963-64, 1965-69, 1979-83, 1997-98 and 2003-04), under three kings in a political career spanning almost six decades.